Blue Jays hope to keep Indians winless

Apr 12, 2009 - 2:21 AM
By Brett Huston
Stats Writer

Cleveland (0-5) at Toronto (5-1), 1:05 p.m.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Baseball's hottest offense has the Toronto
Blue Jays one win away from matching their best start in 15
years. The league's worst pitching staff has the Cleveland
Indians on the verge of doing something they've avoided for much
longer.

A loss Sunday afternoon would equal the Indians' worst start in
95 years, a distinction they try to avoid when they close a
three-game home series against the scorching Blue Jays.

Cleveland (0-5) finished a disappointing 81-81 in 2008, but a
32-17 finish had it pegged as one of the favorites to win the AL
Central coming into this season.

Yet, five games in, the Indians are the AL's lone winless team
due largely to a league-worst 9.86 ERA from a pitching staff
that's allowed opponents to hit .357.

Reigning Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, who didn't lose his second
game last season until July 6, fell to 0-2 with a 9.90 ERA on
Saturday after allowing four runs in five innings in a 5-4 loss.

"We're going to win plenty of ballgames this year. No one is
going to panic," first baseman Ryan Garko said. "We've got to
battle through this and keep our heads up. ... We have to fight
through the perception that it's a big deal, because it's really
not. We're going to be fine."

The Indians haven't dropped their first six games since 1914,
but if they're going to avoid that fate Sunday they'll need to
slow down Toronto's red-hot bats.

The Blue Jays have scored an MLB-high 42 runs through six games,
with designated hitter Adam Lind leading the way. One of
Toronto's top prospects for the past four years, Lind looks like
he may finally be ready to break through. He has three homers
and 12 RBIs, and had his fourth multi-hit game on Saturday.

The Blue Jays are 5-1 for the first time since 2001, and haven't
won six of their first seven since 1994.

"We won, what, 86 games last year? If they just put seven more
with that - that's not tough is it? - and they're in the
playoffs. The year before, they had the same kind of offensive
team, they just didn't produce, either. I think it's just been
the offense hasn't been good."

David Purcey (0-0, 2.57 ERA) will try to help the Blue Jays earn
their first three-game sweep in Cleveland since 2002. The
left-hander looked much better in his first start this season
than he did during most of his rookie year, when he went 3-6
with a 5.54 ERA.

Purcey allowed three runs - two earned - over seven innings
Tuesday against Detroit, but didn't earn a decision in the Jays'
5-4 win.

"He was outstanding," catcher Rod Barajas said. "When he did
lose the strike zone up at times, he was able to regroup and
start over again - get himself where he needed to be. He was
awesome. This is exactly what we need from him."

Purcey gave up three runs over six innings in a 5-2 loss to
Cleveland last Aug. 8.

The Indians will send Anthony Reyes (4-2, 2.76) to the hill for
his first start of the season. The right-hander was solid in six
starts after coming over from St. Louis in July, going 2-1 with
a 1.83 ERA before he was shut down in early September with elbow
inflammation.

His first start in an Indians uniform came when he outdueled
Purcey on Aug. 8, giving up one run and seven hits in 6 1-3
innings.

ALAT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY TRAVIS HAFNER (3) TO RIGHT CENTER WITH 1 OUT IN THE 8TH OFF BRANDON LEAGUE SCORED VICTOR MARTINEZ.CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 4, CLEVELAND 7DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: J PERALTA (.304, 2-FOR-4)

ALAT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY VERNON WELLS (1) TO LEFT WITH 1 OUT IN THE 6TH OFF ANTHONY REYES SCORED ALEX RIOS.CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 4, CLEVELAND 5DUE UP FOR TORONTO: A LIND (.429, 0-FOR-2)

ALAT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY MARK DEROSA (1) TO LEFT WITH 0 OUT IN THE 3RD OFF DAVID PURCEY SCORED GRADY SIZEMORE.CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 0, CLEVELAND 3DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: V MARTINEZ (.318, 0-FOR-0, BB)